Figure 1.

NOD mice on neutral drinking water have an increased incidence of diabetes and alterations in the diversity of their fecal microbiota. (A) Incidence of diabetes in NOD female mice on neutral water (NOD-N, open circles, n=9), acidified water (NOD-A, filled circles, n=23) or water switched from acidified to neutral at weaning (NOD-AtoN, half-filled circles, n=13). Data represent three individual experiments. Significance was determined by the Mantel-Cox Test. (B) Analysis of lymphocytic infiltrate and islet destruction in NOD mice on neutral or acidified water. 0 = no infiltration, 1 = peri-insulitis, 2 = <50% of islet infiltrated, 3 = >50% of islet infiltrated. At 20 weeks, the NOD-N mice had significantly more infiltrated islets (score of 2 or 3; p=0.03). An average of 80 islets per group was counted. (C) Representative H&E (left two panels; scale bar=100 µm) and immunofluorescence (right two panels; red = insulin, green = glucagon, blue = nucleus; scale bar =10 µm) images of pancreatic islets from NOD-A or NOD-N mice at the indicated ages.